Mike's blog

Since my husband thinks I'm supercool and copies everything I do, he too has started a blog :)  His promises to be much more insightful and thought-provoking than mine.  If you are interested in the other half of us, you can go to www.miketolerico.typepad.com.  He's an awesome writer and always makes me think (and sometimes disagree!) and I love him, so you should check it out :)

Pictures from the road (and more)

Lilly and her great grandmother Clemmie

Lilly and Amma

Mike, Nate and their girls

Me, Lilly (with the "pretty smile" that Mike taught her) and Mandy

Lilly and "Rosie" reading books

Lilly and Dodo reading books this morning - can you tell how much she loves a good book? :)

Lilly and her dandelion - she thinks they're beautiful flowers!


Lilly and Dodo watching Monkey George - Dodo was so enthralled by it! :)

Road Trip

We're back!  Lilly and I had a great time in Pennsylvania.  We got to have a quick visit with Mike's grandmother and a few visits with Amma.  Lilly, as it turns out, is a great road-tripper (particularly after I rigged up our portable DVD player so that she could watch Finding Nemo) and our drives were long, but not too bad.  It was so good to get to see Mike's grandmother Clemmie - she fed us all sorts of delicious treats and read books to Lilly.  Then we headed on to my aunt Wendy and uncle Nick's house in Millersville.  It was great to get to spend some time with them.  We also got to see my cousin Allison and Addie's cousin Olivia, and got to eat at Allison and Eric's restaurant Effie Ophelia in Lancaster.  Eric makes really incredible food and I am still dreaming of his sweet potato gnocchi.  It was so good to get to see Amma - she is at a great assisted living place with a beautiful view of the surrounding farmland.

Then we headed up to Boston on Saturday to see Mike's good friend Nate and his wife Jenn and their 8 month old daughter Kaitlyn.  It was great to catch up with them and finally get to meet Kaitlyn, who is such a sweet and beautiful girl.  We had a great lunch at the Union Oyster House and then walked around Quincy Market.  After that, we headed out to Belmont to see one of my dearest (and definitely my oldest) friend Mandy and her husband Brodie.  We went for a walk (Lilly insisted on "running" most of the way) and then had a great dinner and learned their secret to the most deliciously soft chocolate chip cookies.  Lilly really loved Mandy and Brodie, who she called "Rosie."  We're not sure why, but it seemed to stick.  It was such a fun day and great to get to catch up with good friends.

Dodo (my dad) arrived last night and got to go to MyGym with us this morning.  Tomorrow Uncle Joey, Aunt Lishy and Uncle Corey come to Hartford!  Seeing family makes us so happy and it's always so much fun to have a house full of people.  If only we had more bathroom space...

Lilly is going through a "shy" phase where it takes her eons to warm up to people (all of whom she knows and remembers).  Once she is comfortable you can't get her to stop talking, but I'm hoping this is a temporary thing for her.  Then again, I've been going through my "shy" phase for almost 30 years, so why do I think she'll be any different? :)

That's it for now.  I'll post some pictures above.  For those that are interested, yes, the weather has greatly improved and everything is really looking pretty, but, no, I don't think we'll be life-long Connecticut residents :)

Love it!

My new obsession is with Mrs. Meyer's Lemon Verbena cleaning products.  They're natural and safe and they smell amazing.  It's actually a treat to clean when I use them.  So I had to mention them in case anyone is interested in something to make cleaning just a little bit more exciting :)

Weekend recap

Busy weekend, beautiful weather!  We didn't do anything too exciting, but did do lots of little things.  I got my hair cut on Saturday and I haven't been this blonde since birth!  I'm not yet sure how I feel about it.  I had a terrible haircut right before we left Denver in October.  The poor girl seemed to be quite new and cut these horribly short layers on the sides of my head.  I'm still trying to grow them out, so this time the girl I go to here cut my hair quite a bit shorter so that the really short parts don't stand out so much.  She was able to make it all sleek and smooth when she dried it, but I'm not sure I'll have the same success.

Yesterday we had our usual busy morning at church.  I'm temporarily heading up the children's ministry and it's been a bit more involved than I thought it would be.  The hardest part is that volunteers are constantly canceling and we have to desperately search for people who can fill in, which usually means me (and sometimes Mike)!  I haven't been to an actual service at church in weeks, but it's fun to get to spend time with all the kids.  Mike was a greeter and did the announcements again.  Lilly played with stickers and ate (a lot of) Cheerios :)

Other exciting activities: seeding and (organically) fertilizing the lawn, running, taking Lilly to Build-a-Bear, having a delicious dinner at Sander and Susie's house and taking some family walks.  Can you stand the excitement? :)

This week Lilly and I are heading out for our first solo road trip (please keep me in your prayers!)  We're going to Pennsylvania to visit Mike's grandmother in Hazleton and my grandmother and aunt and uncle in Lancaster.  We'll have a four hour drive, then a two hour drive, then a five hour drive back.  We get back here on Friday, then on Saturday head up to Boston to visit with one of Mike's oldest friends and his wife and their baby, and then to see my good friend Mandy and her husband Brodie.  Then next week Dodo comes for a visit, then Alisha, Corey and Joey are coming.  Lots of fun stuff coming up!

The nicer weather here has certainly cheered us up a bit.  It is so nice to be able to spend some time outside (I've been able to run outside in the mornings and Mike has been riding his bike to work).  Lilly and Addie and I play outside every afternoon and I have to drag them both in when it's time to make dinner.

Have a great week!  Leave a comment!  Does anyone read this thing?

I am mortified!

We've had a lot going on this week and I just didn't feel like cooking tonight, so we headed for the Center and went to the new Au Bon Pain that just opened.  Lilly was starting to get tired and cranky, but we had a nice dinner.  When it was time to go Mike cleared our dishes and I was packing up our things at the table with Lilly.  A nice 80ish year old woman sat down at the table across the aisle and looked over at Lilly and smiled.  

What did Lilly do back?  Did she smile or wave or say hi?  Oh no.  She looked at this sweet woman and in a very loud and clear voice said "No, lady, no."  Then she changed it to "No, grandma, no."  (As an aside, she's been watching The Berenstain Bears on PBS and they keep talking about their grandma - this woman in no way resembled Grandma T!)  I instantly started shushing her and trying to just smile back at the nice woman, but she repeated herself again and the woman finally just looked away.

Though I'm sure Lilly didn't really know what she was saying, I have never been so embarrassed as a parent.  Mike didn't hear it all, he just thought she was saying that the woman was a grandma, but I rushed them both right out of there.  She at least mustered a wave on the way out.  We have since had several stern chats with Lilly about needing to call people "sir" and "ma'am" and not shouting "no" at anyone.

The poor woman...

Birthday Pictures

"I cannot believe that I forgot it's my birthday!"

Eating strawberry pancakes...

No child needs this many presents!  (Thank you!)

She LOVES her "new bicycle"

Checking out her kitchen (and still loving her new helmet)

So old and so smart (she's always stealing my glasses!)

This is the best day ever!

Lilly's cake (a little more green than I had intended - that food coloring comes out fast!)

She also LOVED the buttercream frosting

A post-birthday ride into town with Dad on her "new bicycle"

Birthday Recap

Lilly's birthday was a fun whirlwind!  We went in to get her out of her crib and she remembered that it was her birthday and that she had on her "Birthday Girl" t-shirt and was so excited.  It was another rainy, cool day, so we went downstairs and had strawberry pancakes and then opened presents.  She was incredibly overwhelmed by all the really neat things that everyone sent for her and went from thing to thing (and still is).  Thank you all so much for being so kind and generous.

Then we were off to her doctor's appointment.  As the kind, older Italian nurse kept saying, "God bless her, she's a big girl."  She is 35 1/2 inches tall (90th percentile) and 32 lbs, 12 oz (100th percentile).  She HATED being checked out and cried the whole time.  Much of the time she was so upset that her face was purple and there was no sound coming out.  Everyone there was so nice to her, but she just wasn't having it.  Then, of course, the minute the doctor left the room and we started getting her dressed, she smiled at us and said "Not so bad."  Mike and I laughed so hard.

After her nap we headed off to the paint-your-own-pottery place and she painted a plate that we also put her hand print on.  We get to pick it up on the 15th.  We decided to go to a Japanese restaurant right in West Hartford Center, thinking that she would love to sit at a hibachi table.  She loved it at first, right up until the huge flames about a foot away from her.  Mike and I enjoyed it though :)

We had her cake after lunch, so that night we watched a little of Finding Nemo, one of her presents that she just loves.  And then we were so wiped out that we all headed off to bed.  Since there wasn't really anyone else here for us to celebrate with, the three of us had a great time.  It was a fun family day.  See the pictures above!

Two years ago...

Happy Birthday Lilly!

Happy birthday to my little pumpkin!  I can't believe that you're two!  These have been the best two years of our life.  You bring us sunshine and laughter every day.

Two years ago today I was induced and gave birth to a baby who was stubborn even then.  I couldn't believe that she was a girl, and now I can't imagine life without my little buddy.  

Mike is taking the day off today and we have lots of fun things planned.  We have Lilly's presents out and the "new bicycle" that she's been asking for has a red bow on it.  Mike stayed up late putting together her play kitchen and I stayed up late making my little chocaholic a chocolate cake - a Martha Stewart recipe that I made organic and with whole grain flour :).  We're having strawberry pancakes for breakfast on this cool and rainy day and then we'll head off for her two year old doctor's appointment.

This little girl is so loved - thank you for all the cards and presents and well wishes - she's going to have a great birthday!